People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals put a statement mourning the passing of Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata. In a statement sent to Business Insider from Joel Bartlett, PETA's senior director of marketing innovations, the watchdog group said that its members join in mourning the passing of the iconic Nintendo figure:

A New York Times article highlighting the upcoming broadcast debut of a documentary about China's "internet addiction problems" and the misguided attempts by the government to treat young people, uses the opportunity to point out that Americans face a similar problem of children getting too much screen time.

D.C. think tank and vocal net neutrality opponent Progressive Policy Institute issued a statement today urging Congress to pass some sort of legislation that would strip the FCC of its authority to enforce net neutrality rules on mobile and broadband service providers. The statement is in response to the release of the 400-page net neutrality rules document that the FCC released today.

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the UK agency dedicated to surveillance and other hush hush top-secret stuff has released its own Android app to teach secondary school students about cryptography. The app is "free and fun," though it is from the same agency known for cooperating the National Security Agency in a number of surveillance and spying programs around the world.

Verizon claims it won't sue the FCC over new net neutrality rules if the agency doesn't reclassify broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. At least that is what the broadband and mobile broadband service provider is claiming in a new bog post (as reported on by Ars Technica).

Left Party founder and former 2012 presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not happy with Ubisoft's portrayal of historical characters and events related to the "French Revolution" in its latest game. Assassin's Creed: Unity. Speaking to Telegraph, Mélenchon described the game as outright propaganda.

A game created by Evan Harasem called "Super Oppressed PPL" on Newgrounds delivers the narrative of the GamerGate movement on social media, by taking on the voice of "social justice warriors" in the name of forced "inclusion." In the game you select characters based on race and gender, all while the game scolds you for not making the right choices (a "narrative" the creator claims represents the "social justice warriors" of the world.)

Mother Jones officially owns the dubious distinction of publishing one of the most ridiculous articles about #GamerGate - the social media movement about "ethics in games journalism" (or about gender politics, depending on whom you ask) - to-date.

A Steamworks mod for Plague Inc: Evolved on Steam (currently available as of this writing) is catching some heat for its highly racist themes and a title that leaves very little room for interpretation.

The name of the mod is "Niggas Conquering the World (ALPHA)," and features a picture of President Barack Obama, a caption photo of former president George W. Bush saying "Nigga what," and a photo of African American gang members holding guns.

A video on YouTube titled "Grand Theft Auto: Salil al-Sawarem," (roughly translated from Arabic to English as 'the sound of swords coming together') made the rounds this weekend. The video is being attributed to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) (which we have not been able to independently verify), promising a new video game about fighting Western forces in Iraq and Syria.

Watch a random video on YouTube and it's probably some person playing a video game. Or talking about a video game.

Or it's a cat.

Point is, a lot of people record videos of themselves playing video games. Some of them (26% of producers with over 5000 subscribers according to Gamasutra's small survey) received money from the game's publisher/developer to make the video.

Earlier this week Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) filed legislation that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from attempting to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility under Title II of the Telecommunications Act. While the legislation is more of a dramatic public show of support for the idea that the FCC should not have the power to regulate anything, it's also interesting because the Congressman is "bankrolled" by lobbyists for the telecommunications industry.

Conservative TV and radio host Glenn Beck criticized Ubisoft's recently released open-world hacking game Watch Dogs on his Internet TV show. During a recent episode of his show The Blaze, Beck called the game's protagonist Aiden Pearce an "anti-hero."

"Why must everyone be an anti-hero? Why must everyone break the law? Why can't we have a Superman? Why can't we have somebody who is doing the right thing, does the hard thing? Instead, everybody is an anti-hero," Beck said.

The Daily Mail has jumped on the story of South Manchester coroner John Pollard (pictured) who noticed that four teenagers who had committed suicide, in a span of at least two years, had played a Call of Duty game.

Connecticut state lawmaker DebraLee Hovey (R) has penned a lengthy editorial calling for warning labels on video games and for a sin tax to be levied against interactive entertainment products rated "M" by the ESRB. This is the second time Hovey has called for a sin tax on video games in the state, though her last effort failed to get passed by CT lawmakers.

A 15-year-old teen from the UK accused of stabbing his Spanish tutor is being pegged as a "loner" and a "gamer" who enjoyed "achievement hunting" and playing games like "Dark Souls" and other PS3 games by UK paper The Daily Mail. The Daily Mail calls the unnamed teen a "depressed recluse" obsessed with a "video game [Dark Souls] where [a] lone cursed character travels through fantasy world killing others."

The 15-year-old is currently being held on suspicion of stabbing his Spanish tutor Ann Maguire.

If Republican California for Attorney General candidate Phil Wyman had his way State Senator Leland Yee (D) and two other lawmakers would be put to death if convicted of their crimes. He has put forward the idea that the best way to prevent government corruption is for those who put their constituents in harm's way with their dirty dealings should face the death penalty.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest film, Sabotage, hits theaters today in the United States. The film, which is getting decent reviews, is about the head of a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) whose members are viciously killed and mutilated after a cartel bust. Schwarzenegger plays the lead character. But in promoting the film, the aging action star and former Republican Governor of California defended the high levels of violence by taking a shot at video games.

A national press tour for the Fourth Edition of Joel D. Joseph's book chronicling (what he believes) are the worst decisions made by the United States Supreme Court in recent years is about to get underway. The book was published by Imprint Books in December of last year and was recently updated with new material.

According to a report in the Washington Post written by political columnist Dana Milbank, former Reagan administration lawyer Bruce Fein has accused Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and former Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli of stealing his work.

The head of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has lashed out at one of the key journalists publishing stories about the documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. While not mentioning him by name, Rogers basically calls The Guardian's Glen Greenwald a thief, implying that he is committing some sort of crime and is selling the documents leaked by Edward Snowden. You may recall that Greenwald was one of the first journalists to break the story about Edward Snowden and his cache of NSA-related documents and materials..

While we have no way to confirm it, one of our readers claims that a man whose game recently launched on Kongregate (owned by GameStop) has been arrested by the Iranian government and jailed. The game he was supposedly jailed for is "Kill Dictators," and as the title suggest, players are charged with killing various leaders inside and outside Iran including Bashar, Erdogan, Amhadi Nejad, Khameni, Nasrallah, and Putin.

The governor of Rhode Island said that he isn't surprised that many of the 38 Studios assets remained unsold after an online auction earlier this month failed to find a buyer. At a press conference today Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee told the press that Schilling's flagship MMO game "Project Copernicus," was a "a lot of junk."

Florida-based political group The National Liberty Foundation is catching some heat this morning for posting anti-immigration propaganda from Bioshock Infinite, a game that puts such forms of thinking under a microscope by focusing on an isolated society, its leader and the movement that wants to keep "America pure." The group describes itself as a conservative coalition made up of citizens that identify themselves as part of the Tea Party movement.

A new study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science suggests that teenagers who play violent video games are more likely to cheat, experience increased aggression and have reduced self-control. The study comes from a team of researchers from the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands, who analyzed 172 Italian high school students between the ages of 13 and 19, who were "required" to take part in a series of experiments to determine how violent video games affected their personalities.

I'm not sure if this Telegraph article on game addiction is supposed to be some kind of Onion-esque comedy bit, but it sure reads like one. In it the author offers five tips for beating your game addiction.

Putting aside that fact that game addiction (and Internet addiction for that matter) is not a real recognized addiction like gambling is by mental health professionals around the world, the article offers such wonderful tips as:

In a syndicated editorial penned by Dr. Mehmet Oz (who is known best for "The Dr. Oz Show") and Dr. Mike Roizen (chief medical officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute), the good doctors proclaim that "It's official (again)- violent video games hurt teens." They determine (without citation) that playing games like Call of Duty: Black Ops (which they say features dismembered limbs, obscene language, torture) and Hitman: Absolution is "bad for teens" (both games are rated "M" and therefore shouldn't be played by teens).

Shout box

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm

Mattsworkname: an observer , seeing this sorta frozen world and being able to explore without any restriction other then time. no enimes, no threats, just the chance to explore08/01/2015 - 5:34pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: I meant lifeless planet, Time frame is an exploration game. Your dropped onto a world which is gonna be hit by a metor in 10 seconds, but due to time dilation ,you actually have ten minutes, so you can explore the world, in it's last moments, as08/01/2015 - 5:32pm